I was e mailed by the historic Beloit Theatre and sent the National Trust for Historic Preservation's web site so I went and checked it out. The NYHP is a very serious outfit. It's nice that they woke up to the loss of our movie palace heritage and named this their #1 threatened entity. Thanks!

I don't know but it seems to me that all the kill offs have been done. Here in Maine there have been no new closings and the remaining theatres are a very tough well run type of op. I think they missed the boat on this one as it was 15-20years ago when the carnage was happening that some help would have been nice!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) --
Cinemas, a temple in California and
Ford Island at Pearl Harbor are
included on the 2001 list of
America's most endangered historic
places released Monday by the
National Trust for Historic
Preservation.

The threatened treasures -- all symbols
of heritage from around the country --
are victims of neglect, insufficient
funds, inappropriate development or
insensitive public policy, said trust
president Richard Moe.

As the country's leading preservation
movement, the group releases a list each year of 11 of America's most
endangered historic places with the hope they will be saved by the publicity
given to them.

"We try very carefully to construct the list so that it is representative of
different kinds of threats to different kinds of historic places across the
country. It's really an educational device to dramatize these threats," Moe told
Reuters.

Usually places at risk have a better chance of
survival after appearing on the list, with the
exception of the Art Deco Mapes Hotel in
Reno, Nevada, which was demolished last
year despite being named in 1999 as
endangered.

"That was the only one we have ever lost
and the list has been going for 13 years,"
said Moe.

Historic movie theaters, facing huge
competition from mega cinema chains in
getting first-run movies, are among the
endangered places on the 2001 list.

"People are seeing movies as often as they
did before but these historic, usually
independent, theaters are squeezed out of the
distribution chain, which puts them at risk,"
said Moe.

The list also named the Bok Kai Temple in
Marysville, California, which was built in
1880 by Chinese immigrants to honor the
god of water. It is feared the temple,
described as a one-of-a-kind example of
Chinese sacred architecture, will not survive
another rainy season.

The trust said historic resources on Ford
Island in Hawaii, the centerpiece of Pearl
Harbor's National Historic Landmark
District, were in danger of being lost
through a major development initiative.

Ford Island is adjacent to Battleship Row,
now home to the USS Missouri Memorial
Association and a few yards from the
memorial to the USS Arizona, the Navy
vessels that sustained huge loss of life in the
1941 Japanese attack on the naval base in
Hawaii that propelled America into World
War Two.

Moe said there were signs in recent years that Americans were becoming more
aware of the importance of preserving historic places and buildings but more
needed to be done.

"We are not spending as much time preventing demolition as we did 30 to 40
years ago and that's because we have lost so much. People now realize that it's
irreplaceable and that once something is torn down it is gone forever," he said.

The trust used to list the top 10 endangered buildings and places, but one year
the trust miscounted and so now a list of 11 is published.
Mike Hurley www.bigscreenbiz.com